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First Edition of Poe's Tales
Beautifully Bound ca. 1910 by Curtis Walters
POE, Edgar Allan. Tales. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845.
First edition, third printing with three-line copyright notice, no printer's imprint, and advertisements beginning with "German Romance." Octavo (7 3/8 x 4 3/4 in; 188 x 122 mm). [vi], 228, [4, as adv.] pp. With half title, "Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books / Poe's Tales," present.
Bound by Curtis Walters (stamp-signed C. Walters), c. 1910-20, in full brown morocco with gilt ruled and dotted borders enclosing an elaborately gilt-tooled Rococo frame of massed fleurons, rosettes, insects, stars, volutes, curls, and dots. Five raised bands with gilt-dotted rules, Gilt ruled and decorated compartments. Top edge gilt. Turn-ins with four gilt fillets. Gilt rolled edges. Original green cloth preserved at rear. Joints expertly and almost invisibly repaired. A near fine copy, internally fresh and clean. Housed in the original chamois-lined leather-edged slipcase.
Poe's classic collection of short stories. At least 1500 copies of this first edition were printed. The stories, some of which appeared earlier elsewhere, were not selected by Poe but, rather, by Evert Duyckinck, literary advisor to Wiley and Putnam.
The first printing was bound only in printed wrappers, and only five copies in original wrappers are known of which some are heavily restored. A sixth copy is known with only the spine wrapper preserved. The last copy in wrappers (the Bradley Martin copy - estimated at $200,000 - $250,000) was sold at Sotheby's New York on October 20th, 2011 for $314,500.
Bookbinder Curtis Walters, of New York, "was influenced to take up bookbinding around 1900. Later he studied with Matthews, the Club Bindery, and Stikeman. Mr. Walter's work has received wide recognition. It need hardly be added that all of Mr. Walter's bindings are made of the very finest leathers available, and that their workmanship reveals consummate craftsman down to the smallest detail" (Parke-Bernet auction catalog, December 10, 1957).
Contents:
The Gold-Bug.
The Black Cat.
Mesmeric Revelation.
Lionizing.
The Fall of the House of Usher.
A Descent into the Maelstrom.
The Colloquy of Monos and Una.
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
The Mystery of Marie Roget
The Purloined Letter.
The Man of the Crowd.
